"What demon hath formed this abominable void this soul shuddering vacuum."

This September will see the release of my sixth solo album, "The Chemical Wedding." Following the worldwide success of "Accident Of Birth" (which more than doubled the sales of its predecessor "Skunkworks",) I have kept exactly the same band line-up and studio set-up; who are: Roy Z (producer and guitars), Adrian Smith (guitars), Eddie Casillas (bass guitar), and Dave Ingraham (drums)... And there begins and ends all similarity.

The Chemical Wedding is an album that builds on the success of "Accident", but in the process goes way beyond any "boundaries" set by its forerunner.

Its lyrical basis is largely grounded in the myths and occult science of Alchemy and the mystical poetry of William Blake, who's artwork also forms the basis for the album cover.

I suppose I could write a load of stuff about the past as biographies usually do, but I thought I wouldn't bother on this occasion because what really matters is the future and this new album is my future.

"The Chemical Wedding" is also breaking new ground for me in as much as it will be the first release on "Air Raid Records" in Europe, which is my own label, and one which I hope will develop and nurture bands in the future. In America, I will continue to record for CMC International Records.

So what is "The Chemical Wedding"? In the language of the Alchemists, The Chemical Wedding is the union of of man (base metal or lead) with the divine (i.e. gold). Alchemy sought the transmutation of the soul as its aim and I started writing songs based on its imagery.

Roy Z and Adrian Smith came up with riffs which alternated from brutally heavy to uplifting and spiritual and the album ifuses the two in an attempt to mirror its subject matter. To make life more interesting still, Arthur Brown, the legendary vocalist of "Fire" agreed to appear on the album reading various exerpts from the poetry of William Blake so as to appropriately link a couple of songs.

Parts of the album are so heavy that we re-stringed normal guitars with bass guitar strings to get the required affects. At one point there was so much low end coming from the guitars that the tape machine quit and started rewinding!

This was a difficult album for me, to keep it live it was rehearsed in two weeks and took merely eight weeks to recors and mix in silver cloud Studios in LA. Until the last 3 weeks, I was too close to it and too nervous - to judge it relative to "Accident of Birth". But as each track was recorded it was like pieces of stained glass falling into place in a window , the light would never be the same again.

"The Chemical Wedding" is my best yet and is released on September 15th in America. I will tour the USA early in the new year.